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DECISION No

DECISION No. 1124/1997/QD-TTg OF DECEMBER 25, 1997 ON THE EXPORT OF WOOD PRODUCTS AND FOREST PRODUCTS AND THE IMPORT OF MATERIAL WOOD

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government of September 30, 1992;

Pursuant to the Law on Forest Protection and Development of August 19, 1991;

At the proposals of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Minister of Trade,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- In this Decision, the following terms shall be understood as follows:

1. Finished wood products: are wood products manufactured through technological processes, which have a definite use value, are ready for daily use, but cannot be used as materials for further processing into different products efficiently;

2. Fine-art wood products: are finished wood products manufactured by hand or machine, or by hand combined with machine; and finished through techniques of carving, incising, engraving, inlay, lathing or surface decoration with lacquer, gilt or varnish of various kinds;

3. Artificial boards of various kinds: are plywood, pressed board, particle board, fiberboard, assembled board, whether or not surface covered or decorated;

4. Timber of groups I.A and II.A: are precious and rare timber from natural forests of groups I.A and II.A on the list of plants issued together with Decree No.18-HDBT of January 17, 1992 of the Council of Ministers (now the Government);

5. Timber of groups from 1 to 8: are those from natural forests and classified according to their quality; the list of classified timber shall be issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development;

6. Timber from planted forests: are timber exploited from forests planted with various funding sources, including liquidated rubber wood, garden wood and wood from scattered planted trees;

7. Imported material wood: are imported timber in forms of logs, sawn timber, artificial boards of various kinds, reused wooden containers of imported goods;

8. Lawful timber sources: are sources of imported timber and domestic timber exploited under the permission of from the competent agency(ies).

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall issue a circular to guide the certification of lawful timber sources.

Article 2.- Wood products from lawful timber sources, which are eligible for export, include:

1. Fine-art wood products processed from natural forest timber (excluding those of group I.A), imported timber and timber from planted forests, including the following kinds:

a/ Lacquer products.

b/ Wood statues, products made of tree roots.

c/ Wood pictures: engravings, wood pictures inlaid with mother-of-pearl, wood mosaics, wood furniture marquetry.

d/ Wood articles for ornamental, souvenir or advertisement purpose such as: mugs, cups, dishes, trays, spoons, fans, vases, pots, bows, swords, vase bases, lamp stands, clogs, ancestral tablets, bead mats, bead strings, cases of various kinds, badges, emblems, symbols, frames for paintings and photographs, fine-art cornices, ornamental blinds, racks for fine-art articles.

e/ Musical instruments, children's toys, badminton rackets, tennis rackets, table tennis bats, billiard cues, sheep sticks, shoe-horns, artificial limbs, umbrella handles, paint brush handles.

f/ Furniture of various kinds, carved bases and ornate beds, writing desks, tea-serving tables, cup-boards, clock cases, altars, high-grade cabinets. All these articles must be made with carvings, engravings, incisings or inlays or with these decorating methods combined together.

g/ Fine-art wood products, assembled with cane, rattan, bamboo of various species or other materials.

2. Finished wood products made of timber from planted forests or imported timber;

3. Articles of cane, rattan or bamboo of various species, assembled with wood;

4. Wood chips (particles), peeled veneers, artificial boards, boards made of assembled planks (assembled planks, assembled bars) produced from planted forest timber and imported timber;

5. Products permitted to be knocked down when being exported.

Article 3.- Other forest products permitted to be exported:

- Products made of bamboo of various species, cane, rattan and leaves of forest trees or processed from the above-said forest products in combination with other materials.

- Wood pulp, paper pulp, incense powder... processed from wood and bamboo of various species, or bark of forest trees other than those of groups I.A and II.A on the list issued together with Decree No.18-HDBT of January 17, 1992.

- Essential oils of various kinds, aromatic resins and resins of forest trees.

- Such forest products as bamboo of various species, forest tree leaves and bamboo shoots of various kinds.

Article 4.- The export of wood products by foreign-invested enterprises must strictly comply with investment licenses already granted to them.

Article 5.- The regulations on the management of material wood and forest products for the manufacture of export products:

1. Timber from natural forests

a/ Timber from natural forests and artificial boards processed from natural forest timber in the country shall be permitted to be used only for the manufacture of export fine-art wood products in strict compliance with Clause 1, Article 2 of this Decision.

b/ Annually, basing itself on the planned quotas for the exploitation of natural forest timber allocated by the Prime Minister and after balancing the production capacity and consumption demand in the country and the fine-art wood product processing capacity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall propose to the Prime Minister for approval the quotas for exploitation of natural forest timber in the country for the manufacture of export fine-art wood products.

According to the approved natural forest timber quotas for the manufacture of fine-art wood products for export, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall allocate the natural forest timber quotas to the ministries, branches and People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government where fine-art wood products are being manufactured for export. On such basis, the ministers and the presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall allocate specific quotas to the enterprises and units directly engaged in the manufacture and business of fine-art wood products under their respective branch or local management, including the foreign-invested enterprises.

c/ The border-gate customs offices shall base themselves on the list defined in Article 2 of this Decision and the timber quotas allocated by the ministers and presidents of the provincial/municipal People's Committees to fill the procedures for the export of fine-art wood products.

2. Timber from planted forests:

a/ Annually, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall announce the areas of planted forests with investment from the State capital, which are marked off as material zones to satisfy production demands of various domestic industries.

b/ All timber from intensively planted forests other than those from planted forests in the areas defined in Clause "a" above, liquidated rubber wood, garden wood and wood of scattered planted trees shall be allowed to be processed into export products defined in Article 2 of this Decision.

c/ The border-gate customs offices shall base themselves on the lawful timber sources as provided for in the guiding circular of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to fill the procedures for the export of wood products.

3. Imported material wood:

a/ Enterprises of all economic sectors having wood processing permits or forest product export or import permits shall be encouraged to import material wood of various kinds for consumption and manufacture of export products.

Import tax rate applicable to imported logs and sawn timber and export tax rate applicable to wood products made of such imported material wood shall be the lowest ones in the current export and import tax rate brackets.

The Ministry of Finance shall readjust the wood import tax rates with a view to encouraging the import of material wood.

b/ Material wood legally imported into Vietnam after January 1st, 1996 shall be allowed to be used for the manufacture of export products defined in Article 2 of this Decision.

c/ Basing themselves on the origin of the imported timber for which the import procedures have been filled by the border-gate customs offices, the certification by the ranger departments and books of entries of enterprises' workshops, the border-gate customs offices shall carry out the procedures for the export of products made of such imported material wood.

d/ The export of products manufactured under processing contracts shall comply with current regulations.

e/ Import of timber from Cambodia shall comply with specific regulations of the Prime Minister.

4. Forest products: The border-gate customs offices shall base themselves on the products listed in Article 3 of this Decision to fill the procedures for the export of such products.

Article 6.- Implementation provisions

1. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall coordinate with the concerned People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government and the concerned branches in inspecting the exploitation of timber, preventing the illegal exploitation, ensuring the strict observance of the approved exploitation quotas and areas; and inspecting the manufacture and export of wood products and forest products in strict compliance with provisions of this Decision;

2. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Trade and the General Department of Customs shall, within their respective functions, guide the implementation of this Decision;

3. The temporary import for re-export, cross-border shift and transit of timber and wood products of various kinds, which are subject to the State's current regulations on temporary import for re-export, cross-border shift and transit, shall not fall within the regulation scope of this Decision;

4. This Regulation takes effect 15 days after its signing and replaces Decision No.664-TTg of October 18, 1995 of the Prime Minister;

The previous stipulations which are contrary to the provisions of this Decision are now annulled.

5. The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government, the presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall have to implement this Decision.

Prime Minister

PHAN VAN KHAI